The City of Denver Street Grid (Aurora, Lakewood: home, neighborhoods, university)

[livecontent]

I thought this would be helpful for people navigating the city. Denver has a very formalized way of naming streets. It is like a cross. Basically, Broadway runs north to south and Ellsworth runs east to west. These streets are considered the zero streets in the grid.

You can find yourself anywhere by looking at a street sign for it will indicated how many blocks you are North or South of Ellsworth and How Many Blocks you are east and west of Broadway.

Please refer to this brief description at the City of Denver Website New to Denver?

Each Street is defined by the location in this grid. See the RTD website The Regional Transportation District Home Page for the information on all streets. Go to schedules and click on Metro Street Guide.

This information is also provided in many telephone books.

Now for the names (I hope I get this right):
Streets run North to South,
Avenues run east to west.
Court are incomplete street, running north to south
Ways are incomplete avenues, running east to west

Now the downtown streets are different and run Northeast to Southeast. Information will be on the websites that I refer to.

There are Boulevards and Parkways in Denver that are defined specifically by the City Code see Ordinance Regulations Governing Parkways

I think this is the basics. Members chime in to correct me and provide more information.

[xxman777]

One correction, ways are incomplete streets and run north south. Places are incomplete avenues and run east west.

A couple of things to add, the numbered streets all run east west. They start one block north of Ellsworth with 1st ave and increase in numbers from there. Also on east west avenues the odd numbered addresses will be on the north side of the road, even numbered addresses will be on the south side of the road. On north south streets odd numbered address will be on west side of the road, even numbered addresses will be on the east side of the road. Also Boulevards are supposed to run north south but there are exceptions such as Montview Boulevard.

[livecontent]

Thanks for the correction, I use to have something in writing about this but I have not been able to find it or by searching the web. I still a little confused by the whole system but I lived on a court and it ran North to South and was incomplete for the street. I am going to have to find that information.

[tfox]

Originally Posted by xxman777

A couple of things to add, the numbered streets all run east west.

Actually, numbered streets all run southeast and northwest, diagnonally to the normal NSEW grid. Numbered avenues are the ones that run east west.

You'll only find the diagonal numbered streets downtown and in adjacent neighborhoods.

I'm sure you knew this but some of the newcomers may not. Everyone seems to get confused by the diagonal grid anyway.

[xxman777]

Originally Posted by livecontent

Thanks for the correction, I use to have something in writing about this but I have not been able to find it or by searching the web. I still a little confused by the whole system but I lived on a court and it ran North to South and was incomplete for the street. I am going to have to find that information.

You are right that court runs north south. I'm not sure there is any difference between court and way, but I would guess there is some small little distinction. There are more labels for north south streets then for east west streets but I would guess that is because there are many more north south streets.

[xxman777]

Originally Posted by tfox

Actually, numbered streets all run southeast and northwest, diagnonally to the normal NSEW grid. Numbered avenues are the ones that run east west.

You'll only find the diagonal numbered streets downtown and in adjacent neighborhoods.

I'm sure you knew this but some of the newcomers may not. Everyone seems to get confused by the diagonal grid anyway.

Yeah you are right, I meant the number aves were east west and omitted the numbered streets. Thanks for the correction.

[livecontent]

I thought I start this thread as a service, now I am more confused and lost.
There is something somewhere officially that defines, way, court, and places and I am going to find it.

Well, to add to this, I want to say that this system extends out to the suburbs and I wonder if each municipality changes it.

There is something I do know. It is obvious the bus routes are named after the numbered streets that are nearest. Route 20 runs mostly along 20th avenue. For example, Route 16 is West Colfax because it is 16 blocks, 1600 north of north of Ellsworth. However, Route 51 is Sheridan because because Sheridan is 52 blocks or 5200 west of Broadway (There already exist a 52 route which runs on 52nd. avenue) so the nearest would be 51.

Each block is a 100 numbers. Wadsworth route is 76 because it is 76 blocks (7600) west of Broadway. So you get the idea that the bus routes are sometimes tied to the street grid.

Now Since Broadway is 0 (zero) running North to South, the bus route is, you guessed it, is Route 0.

[Katarina Witt]

This is a good thread. I find Denver's grid much more user-friendly than the "old cowpath" system of Pittsburgh. Of course, they have lots of hills and rivers, too. But back to topic, Denver is fairly easy to navigate. There are a few one-way streets that make it challenging. I don't live in Denver any more, when I did I knew the one-way streets. The numbering system is fairly easy too. East changes to west, at, I beleive, Broadway; north changes to south at Central Avenue (?). Most of the burbs follow the Denver numbering system. Golden and the Boulder county cities do not.

[winglady]

Here's another little tidbit that confused a friend of mine when he first moved to Denver.

If an address is South of Ellsworth Ave. (the "0" road), it always includes "South" or an abbreviation of south in the address, such as:

900 South Elm Street

(9 blocks South of Ellsworth along Elm)

But, if it is North of Ellsworth, you'll almost never see any direction indicated:

900 Elm Street

(9 blocks North of Ellsworth along Elm)

East and West are always indicated along Avenues:

200 E. 6th Avenue

(2 blocks East of Broadway along 6th Avenue)

200 W. 6th Avenue

(2 blocks West of Broadway along 6th Avenue)

Recap: always indicate the direction EXCEPT FOR North!

These do not apply to our diagonally-oriented downtown area, but they do apply everywhere else where our roads run mainly East-West and North-South.

[2bindenver]

Most of the original suburbs follow the grid - Aurora to Lakewood Broomfield/Northglenn/Thornton to Centennial/Littleton.

Now HR follows the grid for the major streets Santa Fe/Broadway/University/Quebec but none of the secondary streets.

Downtown is a different diagonal grid following the river.

I remember writing about this last summer.